David Wright <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 14:45:40 +0100 [...] > Quoting Robert Cymbala ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): [...] > > Just now I did a fresh install of potato (2.2r2) from CD and chose > > these tasks: > > [*] Dialup Dialup utilities > > [*] Laptop A selection of tools for laptop users > > [*] Newbie Help New user documentation > > [*] Python Python script development environment > > [*] Python Bundle Full distribution of Python > > [*] Python Dev Full Python development environment > > [*] Python Web Python web application development environm > > [*] Sgml SGML and XML authoring and editing > > [*] Sgml Dev SGML and XML development environment [...] > > After a reboot, I launched dselect and: > > - [S]elect > > - upon entering Select screen, pressed ENTER ("- All packages -") > > - [I]nstall > > > > It said: > > ... 65 newly installed; 89.8MB will be used ... > > > > I don't get it. Why does dselect "want" to install so much, whereas > > the operating-system install (from Rescue Disk boot to the "Have Fun!" > > message) did not? The main installation routine didn't install such > > basic packages as ispell and finger, but somehow those two (and 63 > > others) were in dselect's "queue" of packages to be installed. > > What do you mean by "operating-system install"? If you mean the > part of the installation prior to the reboot, well you wouldn't > expect that part to install much. 89.8MB, let's see, what's that > in floppies, sixty? No, that part of the installation only includes > the packages that are needed to install more packages, i.e. it's a > classic bootstrap process.
Thank you for the feedback. It has prompted me to dig deeper into the install documentation; in fact, I've been able to answer my own question upon further reading! My CD set has (where "M:" is CD-ROM in Windows Explorer): --- file:///M:/install/doc/ch-init-config.en.html#s-preselections "7.24 Select and Install Profiles" version 2.2.20.0.1, 30 November, 2000 That section says: "So, you have the ability to choose tasks or profiles instead." The latest install documentation version has: --- http://www.debian.org/releases/2.2/i386/ch-init-config.en.html#s-preselections "7.29 Simple Package Selection -- The Task Installer " version 2.2.21, 21 March, 2001 That newer section says: "So, you have the ability to choose tasks instead." Section 7.29 (version on-line) ends with a caveat: "The second caveat is that some so-called ``standard'' packages are not installed by default. Thus, some software, which we consider basic to any Linux system, may not be installed.[6] In order to install that software, simply run tasksel -s, without selecting any packages, then select ``Finish''." Footnote #6 reads: http://www.debian.org/releases/2.2/i386/footnotes.en.html#6 "This is due to a bug in base-config which we have fixed for the next release. We decided not to change this after Potato release, since it was a rather large change, and too likely to cause problems." So, until next release, I need to do ``tasksel -s'' as the final step of what I called "operating-system install" (better to have said, "Debian install"). It turns out that I noticed the bug in practice, and sure enough the latest install documentation addresses it and what to do about it. Thank you, -- Robert Cymbala 2nd email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] GnuPG/PGP: www.Lafn.org/~cymbala/pubkey.html http://www.Lafn.org/~cymbala/airguard.html